Monthly Archives:November 2016

For a variety of reasons, most service providers (VARs and integrators) are closely affiliated with a major CRM company. Often, it’s for the installed base access. In this relationship, the company hands over a list of customers (installed base), usually in a geographic territory, so the provider can service the accounts, push modifications, and new add-on capabilities. However, CRM systems are not all the same, and they don’t carry the same feature functionality. Users must be careful to use platform-agnostic providers to get the best form, fit, and functions in their CRM solution. This approach is critical to preventing trips and costly false starts.  

One of the most common reasons customer relationship management (CRM) initiatives fall short of expectations is not having a point person who takes ownership. More specifically, it’s the lack of a dedicated leader who can drive the process from a sales management perspective rather than just a technical one. 

Onboarding is a challenge for most technical companies. In my 30-plus years as a hiring manager in the industrial automation business it took, on average, three months to learn the product and application basics. Even with three to five years’ experience, it took six months to become proficient enough to make effective sales calls. Despite this lag in performance, many companies have no effective policy or procedure that ensures efficient and effective onboarding.

With CRM, 80% of us suffer from low adoption leading to poor ROI-itis. Fortunately, this condition is not terminal and can be fixed by following five easy steps. 

The industrial supply landscape is often a battle of having the right solution available when your customer needs it. Do this well and your customer will boost your service score. The result is you get closer to being a true partner and not just a commodity supplier.

Have you invested plenty but still struggle to get adoption and ROI on your CRM?

You don’t have to settle for an underperforming CRM. Use this guide to Identify the issues, detail a path forward and reconstitute your project with a CEO for CRM.

By all accounts, Spartan Controls is a highly successful company.  For over 60 years, Spartan has been successfully providing customers with high performance solutions, industry expertise, lifecycle support, and technical training.  

At a recent training session of Texas, A&M Industrial Distribution students, a question came up that I believe is important to a lot of people evaluating the CRM space with possible fit into their enterprise. The question was “how will AI be used in the development of CRM products and solutions?”

An insightful question considering the intense power of AI and how it may directly impact and transform the customer – supplier relationship.

Brian Gardner of SP360 was interviewed by Insider magazine host Walt Boyes.

“This is the first such video interview for The Insder magazine,” said Boyes. During the interview, Brian talks about his 25-year journey in the CRM space and his most recent success with his CRM consulting company, SalesProcess360 (SP360). The discussion covers the real issues of underperforming CRM and how to drive additional ROI and overall customer satisfaction for their clients. 

Actionable, process-oriented dashboards provide visibility to critical information needed to manage all stages of the sales process from lead to after sale follow up. Dashboards let you see every step of the sales process even how you are performing on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis.